Vol. XXVI No. 1 Connecticut Irish-American Historical Society www.ctiahs.com 2014 The legacy of two Irish to Connecticut John McCormack and Peter Dolan

ost subscribers of the Hartford Courant may not have scribed him as “gifted with warmth, intellect and wit.” They added paused to read the obituary of Peter F. Dolan on Sun- that he “possessed a beautiful voice, which was regularly on M day, Jan. 2, 2011. Many would display in the Good Shepherd choir, and the Manhattan Prep and not have recognized the name. Dolan Manhattan College glee clubs.” spent most of the 68 years of his life Also interested in picture art, Dolan worked as a free-lance in his native . He photographer after college. His studio was located in the came to Hartford to live only in apartment he rented in Inwood and his photographs the early 2000s and died a few like much that he did, involved everyday Irish- years later in Hartford Hos- American life in his neighborhood and in New York pital, a victim of lung can- City. His photos appeared in the Irish Echo and Irish cer. Advocate newspapers. Today, the Tamiment Li- The single Hartford brary/ Wagner Archives in the Bobst Library connection mentioned in at New York University on Washing- Dolan’s obituary was that ton Square South contains a col- he regularly attended and lection of his photographs. participated in the Wed- Dolan also worked in nesday evening Irish music Keshkerrigan, the well- seisiuns at McKinnon’s Pub known, but no longer on Asylum Street. Anyone in operation, Lower acquainted with Dolan would Manhattan bookstore. have understood that. Through- which drew customers out his life he was deeply involved from far and wide in Irish and Irish-American organiza- with its collection of tions, events and causes, especially Irish language books when it came to traditional Irish music. He was well and books of Irish known and made significant contributions to the vibrant culture and history. Irish culture of New York City. During the 1970s and Little wonder that Dolan grew up with a taste for all 1980s, Dolan continued things Irish. He was born on Nov. 8, 1942, in the Inwood sec- to participate in and pro- tion of northern Manhattan, the son of Peter and Agnes Waters mote traditional Irish music Dolan, both Irish immigrants. His father was a carpenter and the in New York venues. He periodi- family lived on West 204th Street in a neighborhood that nestles cally hosted seisiuns at the now- between Broadway and the 200-acre Inwood Hill Park at the defunct Eagle Tavern on West 14th Street northern tip of the island. Throughout most of the 20th century, in Manhattan. One of the folders in the New York University li- Inwood was predominantly a community of Irish people, Irish brary collection of his photographs is labeled “Eagle Tavern;” an- churches, Irish stores, Irish pubs and Gaelic football fields other is labeled “Musicians, portraits.” Dolan graduated from Good Shepherd parish grammar school From his earliest years, perhaps because he himself was a tenor, and Manhattan Prep. He then went on to Manhattan College in Dolan was fascinated by and a student of the most famous Irish Yonkers just a few miles up the road from his home, and graduat- tenor of all, John McCormack, who died in 1945, when Dolan was ed in 1969. Friends from that era who wrote his obituary de- Please turn to page 2

2 Connecticut home sought for memorabilia of Irish tenor

(Continued from page 1) uns at McKinnon’s. John Droney of West Hartford, who is one of a just three years old. In 1962, when the John McCormack Society whole family of County Clare musicians and dancers, remembers of began publishing a newsletter in , it listed as one that “on the nights I was there, Peter Dolan would join the session of its very first subscribers in the United States: “Dolan, P.J., 10, by singing a song. It was always a song about James Connolly. Cooper St., Inwood, N.Y. 34.” Peter was well educated and his idol was John McCormack.” In the third issue of the newsletter — November 1862 — a col- Mike McGarry, another Hartford Irish music enthusiast, also umn headlined “News From America” reported: “Our friends in made Dolan’s acquaintance. McGarry is the publisher of Hartford America have been particularly active … John Scarry of New York Publications, which prints a community-focused weekly newspa- has written several times to tell us of his activities on Station per in Hartford. He is also involved in the city’s politics as well as WNYC in New York. He has been privileged to present numerous many of its Irish activities. A native of Waterford, N.Y., McGarry, a excellent programmes on this station, all of which will help great- few years ago, organized an Irish traditional music group, The ly in this fight to keep McCormack’s name alive. His friends, Mi- Boys of Wexford, and arranged music tours on the Erie Canal in chael Meagher and Peter Dolan, have cooperated on some, if not honor of the role of Irish workers in digging the nation’s canals. all, of these broadcasts.” Right now he is working, as he does every year at this time, on The January 1963 issue of the newsletter from Dublin an- producing the most festive float in the Hartford St. Patrick’s Day nounced, “We now have a sister society in America. This wonder- parade, while also organizing the annual Hartford Blooms, a ful news sets the seal on an eventful year and we look forward to citywide flower display in June. a long and mutually advantageous association between the two “We at Hartford Publications took Peter under our wing.” says societies in the years to come. The initial organizers include Mi- McGarry. “He did a little writing for us and we gave him a desk chael Meagher, James Sheehan, Matthew Skelly, John Scarry, Peter and a warm spot. Every month, Peter would take up a collection Dolan and Fred Manning.” to ‘save’ his storage bin where he said he kept his collection of When the John McCormack Society of America began publishing McCormack materials together.” its own newsletter in October 1973, Peter F. Dolan was listed both When Dolan died, McGarry and Peter’s classmates at Manhattan as secretary-treasurer of the organization and newsletter editor. College made arrangements for him to be returned to New York That same year, Dolan wrote a piece titled “John McCormack, City. According to the obituary in the alumni magazine of Manhat- Mastersinger: A Short Account of His American Career,” for the tan College, a funeral Mass was said at the Church of the Good first issue of a new literary quarterly, Sword of Light, published by Shepherd and his remains were interred alongside those of his the Irish Arts Center in New York. parents at St. Mary’s Cemetery in Yonkers. A reception honoring When he came to Hartford in the early 2000s, Dolan mingled his memory was held afterward at Rory Dolan’s Restaurant, a with the Irish musicians and enthusiasts who attended the seisi- Please turn to page 8

‘Prince of Song’ and Hartford audiences shared mutual admiration

Hartford loved John McCormack from the first time he gave a concert in the city at Parsons Theater on March 26, 1914. The day after that appearance, the Hartford Courant reported, “Some 2,000 or more people filled all the seats and all the standing room ... and there were people on the stage too, so many of them in fact that Mr. McCormack being a pretty fair-sized boy himself had no more room than was really necessary to sing … “The group of Irish songs, ‘She Passed Through the Fair’ ... ‘Kathleen Mavourneen,’ proved thoroughly delightful … encore after encore was demanded and given. … ‘Mother Machree,’ ‘Molly Brannigan,’ ‘Machusla,’ ‘The Minstrel Boy,’ and the song A newspaper advertisement for a concert by the “Prince of Song” that is everywhere linked with the name of McCormack, ‘I Hear at the Bushnell in Hartford on Jan. 18, 1931. You Calling Me.’ During the early 20th century, McCormack sang before sellout mack told the audience: “When I’ve sung before in Hartford, it crowds at Parsons, the Foot Guard Hall and the State Armory. was under adverse conditions ... But God bless you for this … I’ve The latter especially was an almost impossible venue for singers. been everywhere East, South and West but never a finer place to When he gave his first concert at the Bushnell in 1931, McCor- sing have I seen.”

3 Dolan’s short account of McCormack’s American career

Among the items in Peter Dolan’s collections is a copy of an sufficient number of times to become familiar. The third group I article titled “John McCormack, Mastersinger: A Short Account of give contains the beautiful Irish folk-songs which have survived His American Career.” Dolan wrote the article for the first issue of the ages because of the deathless appeal they make to the hearts a literary quarterly, Sword of Light, published by the Irish Arts of men. When I speak of folk-songs I do not mean ballads, but Center in New York. Below are excerpts from the article: songs in which the story remains the same in all ages. The fourth “John McCormack was undoubtedly the greatest Irish musical group of songs represents the fine work of modern American and artist to appear before the American public, and he is numbered English composers … I believe that true art is universal in its ap- in the company of Caruso, Melba, Battistini and a few others. Se- peal. It is because of this belief that I build my programs as I do, lect company this: the greatest mas- giving something to satisfy the musical ters of vocal art since the invention of taste of those who do not pretend to the phonograph. like everything given them in the name “McCormack came to America in of musical art, something for those of 1909 as a less than front-rank mem- cultured tastes and something for the ber of Oscar Hammerstein’s Manhat- men and women whose love of beauty tan Company. Hammerstein is untrained but instinctive ...’ had not been enthused about hiring “In every one of the nearly 1,200 the young Irishman, but he acceded concerts McCormack gave in America, Dolan’s collection includes a number of advertise- to the request of his star soprano, he always programmed a group of ments and concert programs such as this undated , with whom McCor- Irish folk songs. At the beginning we announcement for a concert at Yale University’s mack had sung at Covent Garden, find him giving ‘The Minstrel Boy’ and Woolsey Hall in New Haven. . Of all the Hammerstein stars, ‘Molly Bawn.’ Later the McCormack is the most remembered songs were to become rarities on today, for after he left opera he went on to become the greatest McCormack’s programmes except perhaps for ‘The Last Rose of concert attraction in history. Summer.’ “The McCormack concerts were not ‘club dates.’ He would come “McCormack began introducing the folksong arrangements of into a town like Hutchinson, Kansas, or Ames, Iowa, and draw Herbert Hughes onto his programmes in 1913. He gave the first more than 3,000, sometimes more than the total population of the performances in America of ‘She Moved Thro’ the Fair, I Know town. In Chicago, one would find McCormack giving four concerts Where I’m Goin’ and dozens of others from the Hughes collection. a year in the huge Auditorium Theatre, it’s huge stage area being “Two seasons later he began to introduce the folksong arrange- used for 600 extra chairs on such occasions. In New York, he ap- ments of Carl Hardebeck, ‘Una Band,’ ‘Sail Og Rua,’ and ’Ned of the peared at the Hippodrome, a theater nearly twice the size of Car- Hills,’ being three that come to mind. Unfortunately one or two negie Hall, always to overcapacity and usually eight to ten times tentative performances in Gaelic did not result in regular practice; per season. In , he would give two concerts within English translations became the rule … As mentioned earlier, eight days before 25,000 people at the Civic Auditorium. In Bos- McCormack would give four concerts a year in Chicago each ap- ton, it was four in one week at Symphony Hall. pearance would necessitate a complete change of program. In the “And so it went in Kansas City, St. Louis, Los Angeles, Nashville, 1915–16 season, McCormack gave 12 concerts in New York with- and a hundred other cities. A popular singer indeed. As early as out repeating one song or aria (excluding encores), a remarkable 1914, when McCormack’s manager, Charles L. Wagner, was pro- achievement considering the effort that went into the preparation claiming in his advertising copy that ‘John McCormack and Christ- of these programmes. mas were annual events,’ some cities were clamoring for more “Laurette Taylor was a summer neighbor of the McCormacks in than one annual appearance. As late as the spring of 1928, Denis Noroton, Connecticut, and used to come around to the music McSweeney, Wagner’s successor, was getting requests from near- room each day when rehearsals for the coming season’s pro- ly 350 cities for a concert appearance by McCormack ... grammes would be in progress ... (She wrote): ‘John spent the “McCormack had a very definite philosophy of how he planned entire morning practicing and selecting new songs. Stretched on his concerts. Here are some of his remarks on the subject: ‘The the grass beneath the window, I would listen. When he fancied a first group of songs which I give, on any program, are songs which new song it was an education to hear him and the song get to- I sing to please myself. They represent my musical taste. The sec- gether, the very first time. It was like a lovers meeting. He would ond group is made up of art songs, that is to say, fine songs which sing it straight off, and then keep going painstakingly through it the public should like and which it will like once they are heard a for hours and days to perfect it.’”

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Darien shore became home away from home for McCormacks

John McCormack first came to America in 1904 to sing at the St. “On rainy days John and his musicians would shut themselves in Louis Exposition just a year after he had won the gold medal in the the music room and work for hours on end in blissful privacy, tenor competition in the feis ceoil in Dublin. For some years there- going through the song literature of the German, French, Italian after, McCormack pursued a career in opera, singing throughout and Russian masters besides many modern composers … Only Europe and with the in New York in 1910–11, Nelly, John’s German police dog, his inseparable companion, was 1912–14 and 1917–18, and the Chicago Opera in 1910–11. allowed in the room. She would lie under the piano in complete Warmly greeted by the Irish- contentment while they prac- American community and other ticed.” musicians and artists, McCormack While mornings were set aside and his wife, Lily, grew to love for musical work, summer after- America. In 1917, John applied for noons at Rocklea were filled with U.S. citizenship and between opera tennis, fishing and swimming and and concert appearances in Dublin, yachting for all. Lily was not enam- London, and Naples, the Mc- ored of the bigger and better boat Cormacks resided in New York and that John had purchased and in Connecticut. named Pal O’Mine. “This may have Only in their 30s and with a young seemed an appropriate name to and growing family, they found a him, but the boat was no pal of summer getaway on the Connecticut mine,” wrote Lily. “Cyril, (their shore. In 1915, they rented what son) was old enough to aid and was known as the Pope House in abet his father in choosing the the town of Darien. In her memoir, I boat and my protests against their Hear You Calling Me, Lily described extravagance were in vain. Once the place as “a charming, gray-stone more I was called in to help with house right on the edge of the rocks decorations and furnishings.” overlooking the water. The yacht ferried family and “We took it for two summers. It visitors across Long Island Sound was there that we all, including and Lily conceded, ”We had some John, learned to swim. It had a dock delightful trips going up to New and this was a ready-made chance York on hot days, lunch on deck in for John to have a new hobby, yacht- the cool breeze and afternoon tea ing. First he bought a 40-foot boat on deck on the way home.” which he named the Macushla.” As much as he liked Rocklea, After two years renting, John and McCormack could not resist when Lily, at the behest of their friend the a friend found for sale in Noroton New York developer and Irish activ- a 183-acre farm. He purchased the ist, John D Crimmins, purchased farm, named it Lilydale and as- Among the photographs in Peter Dolan’s collection is what Lily called ”our first home, sured his wife, “Just think, Lily, this one identified as having been taken on Sept. 21, Rocklea,” in the Noroton section of we’ll have our own milk, eggs, 1918, at Collenders Point in the Noroton section of Dar- Darien. butter, chickens, fruit and vegeta- ien. The caption says the yacht Surf, owned by a Dr. “Rocklea,” she wrote, “had every- bles. The McCormacks retained Harris, took wounded soldiers from on thing John wanted: a bathing beach, Lilydale until 1922 when it was outings in Long Island Sound “with officers of the Riva- a bigger and better dock for the big- sold to the Highland Farm compa- davia, Salvation Army and Knights of Columbus and ger and better boat, a fine tennis ny of Darien which leased it to the other guests on board.” McCormack is shown with an court and a delightful barn where Ox Ridge Hunt Club. unidentified “Motor Girl,” one of the women who drove we had many parties for children ambulances on the Western Front. Sources: “I Hear You Calling Me,” by and grown-ups. Somewhere along Lily McCormack, 1949. “John the line, John decided that he need- McCormack, His Own Life Story,” by ed more space for his own work. The living room seem to be over- John McCormack, 1918. New York Times, Sept. 21, 1915; Oct. 17, run with children so he built on a wing: a music room with two 1921; Feb. 26, March 16, Oct. 16, 1922; Sept. 17, 1945, Hartford guest rooms and baths over it. Courant, Jan. 19, 1931; Dec. 13, 21, 1930.

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McCormack sampler from Dolan collection

On this and the following pages are re- produced just a few of the many photo- graphs in the John McCormack collection of Peter Dolan. At right, John holding his daughter, Gwen, with his wife, Lily Foley McCormack, and his parents, Andrew and Hannah Watson McCormack.

Below, John and Lily with their children Gwen and Cyril and another boy, proba- bly Lily’s nephew Kevin Foley, whom the McCormacks adopted after Lily’s broth- er, Thomas, and his wife died when the ship they were in was torpedoed by a German submarine in 1918.

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Above, John McCormack very early in his career, surrounded by children representing various nations. The picture is undated and without identification. At left, McCormack in the twilight of his career. The photo is identi- fied only as in England in 1943, just two years before his death. Apparently, he was appearing on a program sponsored by the British Broadcasting Company.

On the facing page, an undated advertise- ment for Victor equipment and recordings by McCormack, and a photograph in 1931 of McCormack, right, arriving in New York on the ship Majestic with tenor Tito Schipa and pianist Vladimir Horowitz.

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Collection of McCormack memorabilia deserves a home in Connecticut

(Continued from page 2) of Ireland’s and America’s greatest singers. He needs the help of a popular Irish gathering place on McLean Avenue in Yonkers. professional archivist or librarian to put the whole into an orderly After the funeral, McGarry found himself in charge of Dolan’s and documented collection so that it can be used by scholars to belongings, including the key to Dolan’s storage bin. He worked his preserve the legacy of McCormack. way through the procedures of the probate court and the keeper of One first step, McGarry suggests, would be to find a venue in the establishment where the bin was located, and was able to en- Connecticut for an exhibit of McCormack items that Dolan gath- ter the bin. There he discovered, as he puts it, “Lo and behold, Pe- ered and saved. ter did have a trove of John McCormack memorabilia.” If Dolan contributed much with his photography to the richness The materials, which McGarry rescued from the bin, include a of the New York Irish community, it is equally true that the items large number of photographs of McCormack with his family and he kept in the storage bin in Hartford are a legacy from him to with other singers and performers; fliers, programs and advertise- Connecticut’s Irish community. ments of McCormack’s concerts; many 78 rpm records of McCor- It would be only fitting for Connecticut’s Irish to honor both mack’s songs; and a discography of all of McCormack’s songs and McCormack, who had a summer home in Darien, and Dolan, with recordings plus a number of unidentified photos which may be an exhibition and a permanent home for this collection. copies of the ones Dolan took of Irish people and events in New If any readers have suggestions of where a John McCormack- York City in the 1970s and later. Peter Dolan collection might be permanently housed in Connecti- Now McGarry is looking for some way to organize what is obvi- cut or where an exhibit of the collection might be held in the next ously a valuable, but untidy, collection of memorabilia about one few months, please contact The Shanachie at [email protected].

The Shanachie

President George Waldron “We have kept faith Published quarterly by the Vice President Vincent McMahon Connecticut Irish-American with the past; Secretary Patricia Heslin Historical Society we have handed P.O. Box 185833 Treasurer Mary McMahon a tradition Hamden, CT 06518 Membership Chairperson Joan Murphy (203) 392-6126 to the future.”

Shanachie Editor Neil Hogan, (203) 269-9154

Connecticut Irish-American Historical Society P.O. Box 185833 Hamden, CT 06518